Fort Worth woman faces abandonment charges

FORT WORTH -- A 26-year-old woman faces abandonment and drug charges after police say she left her two young children in the care of a stranger while she went off with a homeless man to smoke crack cocaine in a portable toilet at a nearby park.

Lt. Paul Henderson, police spokesman, said an officer patrolling Lincoln Park late Thursday spotted Amy Joan Wilkins, 26, and Donnie D. Wright, 56, emerge from the single portable toilet and suspected that they had been having sex inside.

"Both Wilkins and Wright were sweating and their clothes appeared to be in disarray," Henderson said. "The officer made contact to inquire what they were up to. Wilkins stated they were in the port-a-potty smoking crack."

Henderson said Wilkins was arrested for possession of a controlled substance after officers found a crack pipe with what appeared to be a small amount of cocaine residue left inside of it. He said Wright was cited for violating the park's curfew and was released at the scene.

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After the officer had left Wilkins at the Fort Worth jail, he was alerted by a supervisor that other officers were working a child abandonment investigation involving Wilkins' two children in the 300 block of N.W. 25th Street, Henderson said.

Henderson said that investigation had been sparked after a witness flagged down an officer, reporting that Wilkins had left her two children, a 2-year-old boy and and almost 7-month-old girl, in strollers in a gravel parking lot with a homeless person while the woman went down the street to smoke crack.

Henderson said the officer located the children, not in the care of a homeless man but with a 17-year-old stranger who police believe is mentally challenged. When found, the teen was trying to feed the screaming and crying infant a bottle of formula, Henderson said.

The teen told the officers that the children were not his and that their mother had gone around the corner with a man.

"The 17-year-old stated he did not know the woman’s name but said that he knew that the children belonged to her," Henderson said. "After interacting with the 17-year-old, officers determined that he was incapable of caring for the children."

Henderson said Child Protective Services were notified and the two children, who did not appear to be harmed, were taken to Cook Children's Medical Center for examination as a precaution.